Ring of Fire
by The Winged Pyro That Drowned
Summary: "Fighting a war is easy; just point and shoot. Or punch, depending on how you're fighting. But winning a war? That requires for you to know who's on which side." He said, completely serious. SYOJaeger/Kaiju still open via PM, Pilots not longer being accepted. Post-movie. NOT-AU.
1. Chapter 1

_**Ring of Fire Chapter One**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Canon Pacific Rim. The rest, however, I do claim. (And my copy of the DVD when it comes out) **

**Now, this may feel like a filler chapter, and it pretty much is. I just needed to set down the immediate aftermath of the Breach getting closed. **

_**Ring of Fire Chapter One**_

-.-.-.-

Hercules Hanson breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Stop the clock!" he shouted into the mic, leading to the cheers of everyone in the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

-.-.-.-

_Three Months Later_

"It has only been three goddamn months since we sealed the breach, and you think the Kaiju are still out there?" Herc asked, raising an eyebrow at the man sitting on the other side of his desk. He had to admit, there were bonuses to being Marshal. Despite being paranoid of the Kaiju returning himself, he had been forced to act as though they were well and truly gone. For the "General Public" and such.

"Yes, we do." said the slightly Asian man. He was wearing a sharp deep blue suit, and refused to take off his sunglasses. Herc still hadn't gotten a name out of him, despite the claim that the man had come from a corporation that "Didn't even answer to God". Herc took it that this guy was either a nutcase, or wherever he had come from had access to some serious shit.

Herc leaned back in his seat, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "You still haven't even told me why you're actually here. You haven't even given me your name."

The man nodded. "Call me Mr. Church. I am here to enlist what remains of the Jaeger Academy and the Shatterdome. We need to be prepared should the Kaiju ever return, and we both know that the governments of the world are happy to avoid funding a project that has no visible use." Mr. Church explained, opening his briefcase. "I have already talked with Newton Geiszler, one of your K-Scientists, and he told me that the Kaiju are a hiveminded species, if you could call it that. If there are any Kaiju left, they know where to find us, and it's a good bet that they aren't going to be holding anything back next time."

Herc thought about it. It was a grim and horrible prospect, one that he didn't even want to consider, but he knew discarding the possibility and not preparing would end in immense disaster. The worst part was that it was extremely likely to happen, and very, very soon.

"You guys don't answer to anyone, correct?" he asked, leaning forward.

"That is correct," Mr. Church confirmed, placing his briefcase on Herc's desk and turning it around. "We answer to no one but the Director and we have access to anything and everything that one could ever hope for. We only hire the _best_."

The briefcase contained a large amount of paper documents, filled with all the information Herc would need to make his decision.

"You do realise that should the Kaiju never return, and the greatest political powers find out about all this, we've got the blood of World War III on our hands," Herc growled, putting the documents back and slamming the briefcase shut.

"We do realise, and we have made preparations for every available outcome."

Herc knew he was being forced into a corner, or more like a place between a nuclear bomb and a Kaiju, but he was determined to forge his own path for what remained of the Hong Kong Shatterdome. "So you are pretty much offering us a new employer, right? New source of funding is all?"

Mr. Church nodded, "Exactly. But we may occasionally require something to be done, sometimes experiments that the PPDC would have never considered possible." This sounded like something illegal to Herc. "But yes, this is just a new source of funding, and currently, a new Shatterdome to operate from."

Herc could see that this "Mr. Church" wasn't going to relent any time soon. "Fine, I can't guarantee anything though," he warned.

"You don't need to."

-.-.-.-

**OK, so since I've always been a fan of "If you can make it bigger, THEN BLOODY WELL MAKE IT BIGGER!" I'm planning on having LOTS of Kaiju and Jaegers featured in this. Due to some complications, half of the newer Jaegers will be designed in a "mix-and-match" form of some of the older Jaegers, so if you have one made using the designer, feel free to PM me a link to the picture and the basic info I'll need to write it up in-character :) for other Jaegers and Kaiju, send me the info via PM or review and I'll see what I can do to get them into the story. **

**Thanks for reading, it will get better soon :D**

**~Pyro**

**ADDITIONAL**** NOTE: Submissions are open till the Summary says otherwise! And unfortunately, after some browsing, I have realised that I might not be allowed to accept/ask for Review-submissions :/ Oh well, PM is still up and open! :D  
**

**~Pyro**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Two**_

**Hot off the press for you people :) ~Pyro**

**(UPDATE! Due to certain storyline requirements, there's been a timezone shift. Now around 7-9 years post-Kaiju War. Lemme know in PM if I've missed anything regarding inconsistent times) **

-.-.-.-

_One Year Later…_

Everything was finally moved to the new Shatterdome in Fiji, known as Blue Reef. Surprisingly, the world governments all embarked on their own Jaeger programs, resulting in a large amount of controversy and political disagreements over the giant robots. A peace treaty had been written up, and everyone, every country, every city; any who even considered starting a Jaeger program had to sign it.

Basically, it meant that nobody could attack anyone in a militant move using a Jaeger. The only reason it had been needed was because the PPDC was no longer the sole sponsor of the Jaeger programs.

Before long, when the first of the second generation Jaegers started patrolling the seas and continents, another problem rose. But nobody knew of this new problem until it was far too late…

Just as it had happened the first time, it started with an earthquake.

-.-.-.-

_Six Years Later…_

"It's our fifth year into the Blue Reef Shatterdome project, and there's been nothing to do but train and train and train," Veronica Martinez complained to her Jaeger partner, Clarisse Linn.

"Just be thankful there hasn't been anything to use that training for yet," Clarisse said, shaking her head thoroughly. The two, despite their hugely differing personalities, were Drift compatible, and together piloted the very first Second-Gen Jaeger, a Mark-VI known as the Valkyrie Chaos. The Chaos had been designed with the combat tactics revolving around quick, precision strikes for disabling the opponent as fast as possible by hitting key areas. A lot of the design had come from the late Striker Eureka, which both honoured and tore open a gut-wrenching wound their Marshall, Hercules Hansen, had suffered with the loss of his son.

Veronica was the expert in the speedy strikes while Clarisse supplied everything needed in the strength and aiming part of the combat. They made an odd pair, but they could pilot, so nobody was arguing.

"Has the Gipsy Danger two-point-oh finished being designed yet?" Veronica asked, swinging her legs off the edge of the supply crate she was sitting on, staring up at the three Jaegers currently stored in the Shatterdome.

Clarisse shrugged. "I don't know. Raleigh has been having a little off-time with his new wife, so I'm not even sure they're that keen to even come back to piloting, to be honest."

"Pity," Veronica pouted, folding her arms. She could act like such a child sometimes, but when duty called for seriousness, she… didn't get that much better.

"Heavens knows we need all the pilots we can get," Clarisse muttered under her breath, leaning on Veronica's crate. The two hadn't grown up together, they weren't in a relationship, and they had almost nothing to even signify they could Drift together, not even combat styles. But, somehow, and through extremely secret midnight meetings, they were compatible.

"Warning, Warning," the Comms system started up, lights flashing everywhere as personnel started running for the exits, "Jaegers Valkyrie Chaos and Basilisk Centauri report to duty immediately. Incoming unknown signature detected. Jaegers Valkyrie Chaos and Basilisk Centauri report for duty immediately. Incoming unknown…"

"Ah, shit. We're stuck with old volt-head," Veronica complained, again, to Clarisse as she sprinted for the elevator.

"Just remember that if he hears you call him that, he's probably going to try and kill you like he did last time!" the other pilot yelled at her, enhancing the chaotic atmosphere. Nobody could actually remember the last time there had been an alert!

"Pfft, volt-head wouldn't do that to me," Veronica dismissed the danger offhandedly, smiling like she didn't have a care in the world. When the elevator finally got to the Conn-Pod drop level, she said, "After all, he's got the hots fo- urk!" her sentence was cut short by a massive fist shoving its way into her gut, driven by the so-called volt-head.

"We've got a job to do," Byron "Volt-Head" Kraus growled, before shoving Veronica down the walkway towards her Jaeger and stomping towards his own. His body was practically nothing but muscle and scars, combat and tragedy. Get rid of the scars and attitude and he'd be the poster boy of the military cause. His head was covered with a thick, hard shell of little black hairs, a reminder of all the skull operations he went through every month.

"And what did I tell you?" Clarisse scolded Veronica, helping her gasping partner up. Veronica was a slim person, surprisingly tough and probably the most underestimated person in the Blue Reef Jaeger program. Her dark wavy shoulder-length hair did nothing to dispel that assumption. She tried her absolute best to do everything looking fantastic.

Clarisse, on the other hand, paid no attention to her appearance, knowing she already had what she wanted, and had a sturdy build so she could beat the living daylights out of whoever said otherwise. Her short silvery spike hairdo, a reminiscent of a five-month-old military cut made her look like an old Amazon warrior… almost.

Together, they barely managed to get into their drive suits and into the Valkyrie's Conn-Pod before it was time to drop.

"Initiating neural handshake in 3, 2, 1," the Jaeger AI blared, starting the countdown.

Both girls felt the shock and stumbled slightly, the feeling of having their bodies while not having the Jaeger's body was more than a little disconcerting. The familiar rush of oh-so-different yet oh-so-same memories warped them both into the past.

"Time to rumble," they said in unison, readying themselves for the drop.

"LOCCENT here, prepare for drop in 3, 2, 1… dropping now," Tendo calmly said over the comms system, initiating the sickening manoeuvre.

-.-.-.-

Byron was different. _Very _different.

=You were a willing participant=

_Oh, shut up you stupid piece of-_

=Mind on the job, Ranger=

Byron had an electronic implant in his skull; one that the organisation had thought would allow them the unique advantage of solo pilots. So far, it had worked quite well, as Byron was the only Ranger on board the Basilisk Centauri. The only problem was he was the first test subject and there were still a few kinks to be worked out of the AI in his head.

=I was designed to enhance your neural strength to allow you to survive and thrive solo Jaeger piloting=

_Fat lot of good you are. _

=I am detecting sarcasm. Prepare for neural handshake=

It had a voice in his head _exactly _like the Jaeger AI in LOCCENT, with the annoying half-tones in every word. Byron had an extremely troubled past and highly questionable reasons for joining the Jaeger program, which basically lead to the AI implant he had acquired. He barely felt the shock of the Drift, using his anger to focus on his objective.

"You bloody worthless piece of shit-" Byron yelled before Tendo cut him off abruptly.

"Look, if you don't mind, I'm just going to initiate the drop now…"

Byron growled in approval. The sooner he was out of there and beating the living daylights out of something, the better. Once the head of the Basilisk was once again attached to the rest of the Jaeger, he undocked and immediately started a course towards the huge doors that were currently trying to open up before he broke them again.

"Watch it, Basilisk," the Valkyrie Chaos said over the comms, holding up a hand. "If it's Kaiju out there, you get first dibs. If it's a Jaeger, then we get it."

Byron knew they were just trying to stall him. The Valkyrie damn near resembled the old Striker Eureka, but with a few extra upgrades and flimsy little wing-bits thrown in to the polished silver theme.

The Basilisk Centauri was a near literal beast. The sharp contrast of the red trim on the cold black base left the viewer like they had seen something dangerous as it was, but the true nature of the Basilisk was in its hunched over, feral position. It was already substantially larger than the old Cherno Alpha, with a massive head that would have looked at home on a mechanical dragon, claws that could grip and entire Conn-Pod, and the sheer strength to smash a Kaiju skull in half. Along its hunched back lay a series of experimental Anti-Kaiju missile tubes, the same deployed on both the Striker Eureka and the Valkyrie Chaos.

"So, deal?" the girls said, in unison. It was actually creepy the way they managed to do that, the childish voice of energy mixed with the stern voice of authority.

The Basilisk's only response was an ear-shattering roar.

"Fine, but don't kill it if it's a friendly!"

Byron didn't know why he tolerated those two.

=It's because they are vital to the-=

_Shut up before I headbutt a magnet you overgrown calculator!_

Outside, it was a nice sunny day, perfect Fiji conditions for tourists to swim about with the fish in the pristine, crystal clear waters, surrounded by little islands and coconut trees and OMFG IS THAT A GIANT ROBOT?

The Basilisk charged out of the hanger, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to have activated his Jaeger until he was outside. The Valkyrie wasn't much better in that department, but they at least tried to keep the floor intact. The giant feet on the Basilisk held no such regards for the floor's wellbeing.

"Basilisk Centauri, where the hell do you think you're going!" Herc yelled through the comms, sitting nice and relaxed back at LOCCENT. "The signature is on the other side of the Shatterdome!"

"Ever heard of ambushing?" Byron growled menacingly, opening up the plasma blades that were installed along the Basilisk's forearms. Upon contact, they would expel superheated plasma that would seal any wound and probably continue to burn through a fair amount more flesh.

"Yes, and we both know damn well it doesn't work against Kaiju, or Jaegers. Now would somebody please go find out WHAT THE HELL THAT SIGNAL IS?!" Herc yelled back at everyone. Jeez, sometimes it felt like they were all out of practice.

-.-.-.-

"Vee, check the radar," Clarisse ordered, keeping up the Valkyrie's movements on her own. "See if that signal is a Jaeger."

"On it, Cee," Veronica replied, pulling a suspended console around from her left. Clarisse operated on the right side of the Jaeger, as Veronica was left handed. It had the odd effect of making the Valkyrie extremely ambidextrous.

The waters surrounding the Blue Reef Shatterdome were crystal clear and surprisingly deep, getting all the way to the upper waist of the Valkyrie, while the Basilisk's legs were only just submerged, even folded down in the digitigrades system like the one used on the Crimson Typhoon. It made for an… _interesting _battleground.

"It's got a metallic signature, so it must be Jaeger." Veronica reported, glad it wasn't an alien beast intent on devouring her.

Clarisse had a horrible feeling in her guts about this, but there was no way to back out of this or charge in without huge political consequences. "This is Jaeger Valkyrie Chaos of the Blue Reef Shatterdome, unidentified Jaeger; please shout-out or we will be forced to use extreme violence to get an answer out of you, please respond, over."

The metallic signature stopped for a moment, before turning around and moving away.

"Dammit, I think he's hostile." Veronica muttered, Clarisse sharing and hearing those exact same thoughts.

"This is the Basilisk," said a deep, animalistic voice that carried over the comms like only one voice could. "If you don't speak up, I'm going to have to kill you, whether you are a friendly or not. Now, I'm sure you've heard the rumours of the Basilisk Centauri?" Byron asked, leaving the question hanging. The radio went quiet, even the techies at LOCCENT shutting up.

A whisper, patchy and indistinct, came over the radio. "The beast?" it asked, worried.

The girls could practically feel Byron's sadistic grin. "Yeah, that one." He said, sending chills through the backs of every listener.  
"This is the Delta Fenris, of the San Diego Shatterdome. We're just on patrol and didn't realise there was a Shatterdome in this region." The Jaeger pilot said, a little too quickly.

"You're a long way from home, little wolf," Byron challenged. Looks like Veronica wasn't the only other person to pick up on the Delta's nervousness, Clarisse thought.

Veronica heard that thought and simply smiled at the other pilot.

"Yeah, but it's not like we can argue with our orders," the other replied. Where was that Jaeger? It should have been within sight by now, according to the radar.

"Tell me, would your report be enough to discourage them from patrolling in this region again?" Clarisse asked, attempting a diplomatic solution. She prayed the Delta's pilots were smart enough to realise this "get out of jail free" card for what it was.

"Uhh, possibly…"

Shit.

-.-.-.-

Byron grinned, slightly happy for the first time in a while. He might finally get a chance at a decent fight!

=Attacking them would result in a war, if not a massacre=

_Their fault for snooping. We're on the registered Shatterdome list anyway. _

He had a lot of arguments in his head like that. The Basilisk stood at a good 400ft when it stood up straight, but otherwise it was near 360ft tall, hunched over and ready for battle. A gigantic Jaeger, even by updated standards. Ever since the end of the Kaiju War, they had been forced to go even bigger than before. Despite only two arms, the Basilisk had three pilot spots, should Byron ever die or be incapacitated.

It was a hell of a machine, and an even worse nightmare in the middle of a battle. The plasma blades on the forearms effectively doubled its melee attack range, and it had a terror of a grip, too; hundreds of oxyacetylene welding torches were imbedded into the "palms" of the Basilisk's hands. They could melt through a Jaeger's armour at almost a meter per second; and that was _before _they were primed for combat!

"Would a broken Jaeger convince them?" he asked, already moving into position. The enemy Jaeger was behind the Shatterdome, on the other side of the island it was built on. The Basilisk, however, was just rounding the corner of the larger island behind it.

"You know as well as I do that would just start unnecessary amounts of trouble," the Delta responded.

"Are you a solo pilot or has your partner just lost his tongue?" Valkyrie asked, confused.

"He's a mute. So I'll just leave you guys to your business…"

Byron finally rounded the corner, his heavy footsteps being felt even in the city a few miles north. The Shatterdome had been purposely placed south of the town so that any Jaeger activity wouldn't cause excessive aquatic damage due to the almost horse-shoe like ring of land that surrounded the town.

=We need to debrief them, and retrieve the full story=

_I'll give them a reason to get some new briefs then._

=You seriously need to get up to date on Military Lingo=

_Go shit yourself. _

=We share the same body, dumbass=

_Glad to know you finally have a sense of humor._

=Incoming=

-.-.-.-

Now, that was… unexpected. All Jaegers aside from a select bunch had been designed for an analogue power system- or backup system, so that there wouldn't be anymore Leatherback accidents with a perfectly fine but crippled Jaeger. The Basilisk was unique in its own right, taking a full four years to construct with every little thing that could be crammed in while not instantly killing its pilots, including a triple nuclear core engine.

Unfortunately, Byron's AI implant didn't have any anti-EMP attributes… the Basilisk roared one final time before powering down, recognising the lack of a pilot. Weirdly, it actually straightened up when it shut down.  
Clarisse and Veronica both screamed in mental pain. Despite Byron's… issues, losing him was like losing a brother. "Delta Fenris, we suggest you power down immediately. Failure to do so will result in a lot of carnage," the Valkyrie said, deceptively calm despite the anguish of the pilots inside.

The Delta, now in sight, lowered its EMP cannon arm and turned to face the Valkyrie. Its dark blue tones mixed with white splotches made for startlingly effective camouflage. That and the stocky build signified it as a recent Mark-VII Artillery Support Jaeger. But the EMP weaponry couldn't be used to any effect against organics… This mech had been designed for _Jaeger to Jaeger_ combat, with its modified T-18 Angel Wings chest-piece equipped with missile racks, anti-Kaiju Mortar shoulder cannons, and plasma casters build in to the hands, which obviously could be switched with an EMP cannon.

At least that's that the scans told them.

"So, now that the main problem is dealt with…" Delta taunted, smug with its quick kill of the Basilisk, "We can get to the sideshow rookies." This guy just wanted to cause trouble, didn't he?

Valkyrie started wading towards the Delta, trying to close the distance to render as much of its artillery power useless as possible. This fight could be the end of them both.

-.-.-.-

Herc sighed. He was out of practise, and he hadn't even been in-practice in the first place. "Tendo," he called out to the lead technician, "Bring up the local news channel on the lower right screen."

Tendo nodded, quickly flicking through his workstation and typing faster than a squirrel on energy drinks. "Local news to the left, global to the right!" he replied, swinging his chair around. Not quite what the Marshall ordered, but oh well.

==== BREAKING NEWS ==== The so called "Jaeger War" may not be as big as first assumptions imply === The Becket family is rumoured to have a new member arriving soon === Insert Breaking News Here === Many American Shatterdomes ignore the Jaeger Ceasefire Treaty === The Russians are really not taking the invasion well – nuclear retaliation a possibility ===BREAKING NEWS ===

"Oh, ok. That makes a lot of sense now…" some random technician watching the news muttered. "I suggest we keep the news channels on more often," a move that almost everyone in LOCCENT agreed to. Except Herc.

"Someone get me a political map of all known Shatterdomes, ASAP!" he yelled, galvanising everyone into action. "Full alert here, people; get a move on! And somebody go prep the Storm Andromeda!"

-.-.-.-

Pain.

Suffering.

=Oh shut up=

_I thought you got EMP'd…_

=Not a chance=

_So why did the Basilisk shut down?_

Confusion.

=I run on the same energy your body does=

Silence.

=That means I was only offline for exactly 10.128491 seconds=

_I got disconnected though._

=That little blunder rendered you unconscious for exactly 10.128491 minutes=

_That is… weird._

=Your lack of hostility is weird=

_You wanted to remind me of that?_

=It's the only thing I've ever known from you, and I don't like variables much=

_Heh, AI OCD. Never thought you liked that though._

=I don't=

=Now get your ass into gear before you get us killed=

Anger.

-.-.-.-

"This is Janet Davies, reporting to you live from Fiji, right from the top of… whatever this hill is called. Sorry for the alarming unprofessionalism in this report, but it's live, and I've got absolutely nothing to work from. So, to the news! As you can see behind me now, the two Jaegers, Valkyrie Chaos of our own Blue Reef Shatterdome and Delta Fenris of San Diego Shatterdome are fighting it out in the clear waters of Fiji. The Basilisk Centauri, our resident tank-Jaeger, got taken out pretty early on, and the radio has been in chaos ever since. Oh, uhh, no pun intended." The reporter rambled on, before turning away and listening intently to her Bluetooth earpiece. "OK, uh-huh, ooohhh… well. That's interesting, to say the least." She whirled back to the camera, hell written on her face. "We have just received news that not only is the Delta Fenris currently engaging the Blue Reef Shatterdome, but four more Jaegers are currently on their way. All are hostile, and frankly I'm a little worried right now. Hang on," she put her finger to the earpiece, looking down.

A huge _boom_ in the distance startled everyone in the crew, sending Greg the camera guy back up against the van. He didn't want to be anywhere near those Jaegers, especially now that they were fighting each other.

"The Marshall of the Blue Reef Shatterdome, a former Ranger by the name of Hercules Hansen, has just warned me that their own Storm Andromeda, a Mark-VII Artillery Jaeger, is about to deploy. Well, Herc, I'd love to find a safe place, but with eight Jaegers fighting, I'm not sure that's possible. Dear the rest of Fiji, please evacuate, we'll still be bringing you live coverage-" another mortar from the Delta missed Valkyrie by an inch and went flying off to explode in the town harbour far north "until we get blown up or evac ourselves." Janet seemed uncharacteristically cheery, considering the situation.

"Hey Greg, when this is over, you wanna do a Jaeger doco with me?" she asked, sending him an affectionate smile. Greg couldn't decide, but set up the camera tripod since Janet wasn't needed in the shot anymore.

"If we can survive sidelining an eight Jaeger war, I don't think anything could kill us."

-.-.-.-

The Storm Andromeda; a marvel of beauty, a work of art, a piece of pure magnificence. _And it still doesn't have enough guns on it! _thought Treyvon Smith, one of the pilots to the awe inspiring machine. The young man was a bit trigger-happy at times, and there were more than enough guns to sink a battleship. Heck, there were enough guns to sink a floating Shatterdome!

"Staring at it wont give it more guns, you know," Thalia, Treyvon's long time girlfriend and fellow pilot, said while resting her head on his shoulder.

"A Gatling Rail-Cannon, two mortars, eight missile racks, four drone bays…" Trervon listed all the ranged weapons on their Jaeger with glee, thinking about what else he could fit on there. Probably not a lot, but knowing Treyvon, he'd think of something. "I've been discussing the Kaiju anatomy with Newt," he said, "and his research suggests we either use lasers like the drones, or get more sheer kinetic damage for use against the Kaiju. The mortars do pretty damn well, but if we swap them for heavy Rail Guns, we'd get far better armour piercing and you know, more lethal." Treyvon gestured to the giant cannons on the Jaeger's back.

Thalia sighed and shook her head, her spiked head of black hair falling over her face in the process. "Trey, we have a Gatling Rail-Cannon already. It's practically a Jaeger minigun, and you still need more guns?"

Treyvon nodded like there was nothing wrong at all.

"Despite the Drift, sometimes I feel like I can never understand you." She laughed, holding him closer.

-.-.-.-

"Not good, not good!" Valkyrie screeched as its arm was yanked out of alignment, half the servo motors breaking as it tried to stab the Delta with its Stinger Blades. The fight had been going pretty much in their favour until the Marshall had radioed in that there were four more hostile Jaegers inbound, with no idea on ETA. News like that could break anyone's concentration.

Worse, it was a moral boost for the Delta.

"And now for the finisher," Delta said, its voice full of fake pity as it grabbed Valkyrie's other arm and shoved a mortar barrel into the Conn-Pod's face. "Well, it was nice knowing you!"

_**BOOM**_

Veronica slowly peeled open one eye. "Umm, are we dead?"

An ear-shattering roar pierced the dreadful silence, even louder than the impact the boulder had caused. "I hope your pack doesn't miss you." Byron said coldly over the radio. Man, that guy could give Slenderman the chills!

The Basilisk was standing tall on top of the mountain it had previously used in an attempt to ambush the Delta, and although the Jaegers had no real facial expressions whatsoever, this thing looked like it was staring right into hell… and was going to beat the shit out of it.

"Never mess with the Basilisk." And then, it leapt. The girls had no idea it could actually jump – it just seemed like a ludicrous idea!

Four thousand tons of solid Jaeger flew through the air. The Delta barely had time to turn its guns towards the danger before the Basilisk landed on it – massive feet first. The explosion from the Delta Fenris's backup nuclear reactor blackened the day, so bright it permanently blinded two of the news crew, so loud it could be heard all the way in Australia, and so powerful it blasted what was left of the Valkyrie Chaos's right arm into impaling itself on a hill. Yeah, it did some damage.

The Valkyrie was scorched beyond recognition, and its pilots were still trying to recover when the Jaeger was picked up and dragged along to god knows where.

-.-.-.-

Byron knew he was going to die now. By jumping on the Delta Fenris, he'd given himself a timer. Whether it was radiation poisoning or cancer, he didn't know nor care. But right now he was in pretty bad shape; his chest was heaving, his body aching, and yet the fight was still not over.

_Next time I won't jump on it. Happy now?_

He didn't get a clear response, just a burst of static. The EMP thrown off by the Delta's death wasn't quite directed enough to completely knock out Bryon's AI, but it still hurt his connection to the Basilisk.

"Byron, can you hear me!" Tendo was shouting over the radio. Byron barely heard it over the static in both his head and the speaker system.

"Yeah, I can hear ya. What's the problem this time?" he replied, his voice gravelly. He vowed never to headbutt a nuclear explosion ever again.

"Four possibly hostile Jaegers incoming from the west." Tendo replied, tense yet relieved at the same time. "At least one is Artillery; we don't have any recon on the others yet. The ETA is about an hour and we'll be deploying the Storm Andromeda in defence. There's been no contact from Valkyrie Chaos yet, so if you could drag them in it would be appreciated."

Byron turned his head to look at the downed Jaeger. It looked pretty beat up, and that was with a decent amount of shielding from the blast… namely in the form of the Basilisk. "Sure." Byron groaned, stretching and rolling his shoulders. They ached real bad. "How's the damage to the Basilisk? AI isn't responding and I can't see it from here,"

He could hear Tendo suck in a deep breath and exhale like he didn't want to be the one to say what was coming. "Aesthetically, it looks excessively damaged. Functionally, the Jaeger is at about seventy percent operational. The legs in particular are really damaged. We can do a quick repair job on those and get you out there for the incoming hostiles, if that's your plan."

Byron got a firm grip on the Valkyrie's chest and started a slow limp towards the Shatterdome doors, head down and swaying. "Yeah. Let me know as soon as Clarisse and Veronica are up and capable of piloting." He ordered. Byron didn't have the authority to do that, but in the current situation nobody had much of an idea on what to do. Four versus two, no data on the enemy, and a half-crippled Jaeger made for bad odds.

=And the war is only just beginning=

**This is my second attempt at a decent fic (well, posted fic anyway), so if you have any constructive criticism, praise, advice, whatever; I'm happy to listen. I need all the help I can get, so don't be shy! ;) **

**Thanks for reading! ~Pyro**

**And I hope nobody minds the rather large... umm... "creative changes" I've made to the islands...**

**P.S. Yeah, the Cybran Basilisk from the Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance Blackops Mod Pack was largely my inspiration for the Basilisk Centauri ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Three**_

**Here we are with the first submission! A little Juggernaut type for yas! ;)**

**I'm sorry this one took so long, I've been a little caught up with Pacific High. Anyways, subs are still open for Kaiju and Jaegers, but I don't think I'll be able to take any more Jaeger Pilots. **

**Good hunting.**

**~Pyro**

**(UPDATE! Re-arranging time passages slight to fix continuity) **

-.-.-.-

Colin and Jack Grayson, Canadian pilots of the CEF Crusher, stared at the TV screen in their bunkroom in awe.

World War III had started.

America, for whatever reason that hadn't been announced yet, had pretty much declared war with the Russians. And, as a result of what was supposedly bad Shatterdome orders, had accidentally kicked the rest of the world into frenzy.

"This is crazy, man." Colin, the younger brother, muttered while pacing in a small circle behind the couch. "Now are we going to get out there and help the United States, or do we need to defend ourselves from them?! It's insane!"

"Oh quit yelling and listen to the news," Jack ordered, leaning forward, perched on the edge of his seat. "It might actually answer your questions."

-.-.-.-

"Within the last six hours alone," the news reporter began, "A total of twelve Jaeger battles have been reported. Of these, a third ended with nuclear explosions close enough to contaminate the local cities and Shatterdomes. HAZCHEM crews from all nations are on standby, including America's, for a global truce so the radiation can be contained and dealt with. This act was prompted by the Global Climate Crisis treaty, which every nation signed."

A clip was brought up. Jaegers were fighting Jaegers just in Magadan bay… in Russia. "In this particular battle between four local Russian Jaegers, three American Jaegers, and two Canadian Jaegers, the fight ended with a nuclear meltdown, resulting it the total loss of six Jaegers, possible destruction or retirement of the rest, and a whole city destroyed."

The clip ended with a nuclear fireball engulfing the news helicopter.

"Australia and New Zealand are at high tensions, but we have just been informed that there is an alliance between them and the Pacific Island regions, where another battle took place. The thirteenth battle is likely to take place there, with more Jaegers incoming. At this time we are unable to confirm their nationality or allegiance, but we can report that one Jaeger is a Mark-VII artillery, and at least two are what is commonly known as "Jaeger Tanks". We will be continuing with live updates and feed as we get it. Be warned that in our haste to get the pictures to you, they will be unedited in the first viewings."

The next clip was of a rather unprofessional report by Janet Davies, detailing the events of the battle that had occurred only a short while ago. The Basilisk Centauri leaping off a cliff and trigging a backup-core meltdown in the Delta Fenris was a sight to behold.

"Unfortunately the broadcasting gear was damaged after the thermonuclear meltdown of the Delta Fenris. Our tech support staff are already working their hardest to bring it back online before the next conflict emerges. Interviews are being conducted at the local Shatterdome to see if any more information can be gained. At the current ETA, the Blue Reef Shatterdome will have peace for two hours; a squad of interceptor jets forced the Jaegers to drop and activate earlier than planned, as far as we can tell."

Next, a clip of something completely unrelated to WWIII came up; Raleigh and Mako Becket-Mori, one of whom was heavily pregnant.

"In other news…"

-.-.-.-

=This is a bad idea=

_Trust you to think that. I may be a suicidal maniac, but I'm not ready to die just yet. _

=Don't forget the bloodlust=

_They can't pilot the Valkyrie Chaos until they get her repaired anyway._

=Byron, you have literally nothing in common with them; attempting to Drift with them is the stupidest plan you could possibly come up with=

_You're in my head. I thought you'd at least know everything I did concerning the plan._

=I can allow you to pilot solo; but that doesn't mean I can allow you to Drift with anyone=

_Better to try and fail then not to try and something else happens._

=I hate those sayings, but only because you can't completely remember them all=

_Get over it. I'm in charge._

=Ah yes, wonderfull=

Byron groaned and looked around his bunk room for a magnet. There wasn't one immediately visible in the huge mess. Not that they'd let him have a magnet in the first place.

"Sir?"

Byron turned around to look at the poor man shaking in the doorway. Couldn't really blame him for being scared. Byron had been known for his violent approach to… well… everything, really.

"Whattaya want." He grunted in response.

"Clarisse and Veronica are awake, sir. They're waiting in the Kwoon Combat room for you." The messenger said, quickly scampering off as soon as Byron nodded his thanks.

=I still think this is a terrible plan=

_Better than nothing, you sad excuse for a supercomputer!_

=I'm an AI, not a supercomputer; there happens to be a difference=

_DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CARE?_

Bloody hell, that thing could be a menace sometimes.

-.-.-.-

Veronica was awake… but she felt like she had the hangover from hell. Plus her nose was still dripping bloody practically every time she moved her head. "Cee, can you remember what happened? Last thing I knew our arm got ripped off and then… umm… something exploded. Something big."

Clarisse sighed loudly; staring up at the roof like it might hold the answers. "That's the fifth time you've asked me that. Are you sure you don't have concussion or something?" she asked, professionally worried.

"Uhm…" Veronica hummed, unsure.

Loud, heavy, uncaring footsteps could be heard stomping their way down the halls towards the combat room. Clarisse sighed again. Byron. It had to be. Nobody else but… well, actually, there were only a couple of people who could walk that loudly, but they had to put effort into it.

"Veronica, Clarisse," Byron nodded to them in turn as he came in. Wow, he was being polite today.

"What do _you _want, Volt-Head?" Veronica asked, still woozy from her nuking.

"I want you two to help me pilot the Basilisk."

Veronica stopped her swaying and stared at Byron, eyes open like saucepans, mouth hanging open like a flytrap, bloody tissue hanging out her nose… to say she was shocked would have been the understatement of the century. "_What_?"

"You heard me." Byron gestured to her, ignoring the looks he was getting from Clarisse. "I need your help to- _oh for the love of god, _WILL YOU SHUT UP!" he suddenly shouted at the ceiling, giving everyone a fright. "Anyway, I need help piloting the Basilisk Centauri. You two don't have a Jaeger until the Valkyrie is repaired, and frankly we can't risk another EMP surprise like last time."

Clarisse kept opening and closing her mouth, trying to form the right words, but failing completely. "Who-wha-why-ho-… ungh?"

Byron grunted as if to say, 'maybe you aren't good enough. Maybe I shouldn't have asked'.

"Why?" she finally spat out at the mountain of a man in front of her. Clarisse immediately bit her tongue, fearing she might have… umm…

"No better option. Plus it's no help to anyone to have two perfectly fine Jaeger pilots lying around when there's available Drifts and a damn hard fight ahead." Byron shrugged. "Meet me at the Conn-Pod when you're ready. I'll be taking her out for a test run on the repairs about forty minutes to the hostile ETA."

And with that, he left the room, loudly and uncaringly as he had entered it.

Veronica and Clarisse, still both in a state of shock, stared at one another, then the door, and back again, before finally getting a move on to get their drive-suits back on.

-.-.-.-

"The repairs on the Basilisk went pretty well considering the time limit we were on." Tendo Choi began, talking to Janet. She was a pretty thing, but Tendo was married and had other problems right now… but he'd always liked being on TV every now and then. "The inner workings of the mechanical stuff is still in bad shape, but with the armour all fixed up it should be able to survive until more permanent repairs can be done. As you can see, most of the damage is just aesthetic right now."

Janet flashed him a huge smile, complete with unnaturally white TV-Presenter teeth. "Do you guys here at the Shatterdome have any idea what might have caused what is now commonly known as World War Three?" she asked, stepping to the side so Greg could get a decent shot of the head LOCCENT technician.

"Well, we've had a couple of theories on Russia or America making a move for a land-grab, maybe China, but we honestly have no idea." Tendo answered. "By the time we realised the Delta Fenris was hostile, WWIII had already been going on for a good six hours or so, I think. We've kinda made a decision to have the news channels on 24/7 up in LOCCENT now, so we don't miss anything else important." He joked, before becoming serious again. "That blunder very nearly cost us two Jaegers and three pilots. And one of those Jaegers might still very well be out of commission for a month or eight."

Janet looked up at the Valkyrie in its dock. "Yes, one of them does seem to need a hand. And an arm… so," she said, turning back to Tendo, "After the new threat has been successfully dealt with, or god forbid, we lose, what's going to happen?" she asked.

Tendo whistled slowly and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, if we lose, prepare the get the hell out of here. I don't know what's going to happen but they're likely to try smashing the Shatterdome or something. But if we win, we'll probably be staying on defence until we get some proper co-ordinated intel on where our loyalties lie." He said, completely serious. "Fighting a war is easy; just point and shoot. Or punch, depending on how you're fighting. But winning a war? That requires for you to know who's on which side."

-.-.-.-

"Remember, no matter how interesting our pasts are, do _not _chase the rabbit," Byron said, warning the girls as they hooked themselves into the two harnesses at the front. Byron's spot was the main one at the back, on a slightly raised platform in the slightly cavernous interior of the Basilisk Centauri's head.

The plan was for a dry-dock run, disconnected from the Jaeger's body, to make sure they'd be able to Drift. Best not to leave anything to chance in a battle where you're heavily outnumbered.

"Initiating Neural Handshake," the Jaeger AI stationed back at LOCCENT intoned over the loudspeakers in both LOCCENT and the Basilisk Centauri's systems. "Prepare for drop."

"Override drop sequence; delay code 'I know where I can find a magnet big enough to erase you'." Byron said loudly. A moment passed before the Jaeger AI complied, the docking clamps locking back onto the head with a clang.

"Dry-dock Drifting confirmed."

Veronica was a little edgy about this. Byron had been heard violently yelling at his AI implant quite often. To share her head with his was quite… well, she didn't know how to put it. Would she be sharing her head with his AI too? So many different factors to account for, but the huge concern for her and Clarisse was the rabbit. Once or twice in their first Drifts, they had not only chased a rabbit or two of their own, but also their co-pilots rabbits.

The mystery of each others pasts might be too much to ignore.

Clarisse was thinking of the exact same thing, analyzing everything. She could ignore her own and Veronica's rabbits, but should she worry about Byron? His mind was usually focused, only occasionally stopping to yell at something. As far as she could tell, he could keep his mind and his rabbits under control.

Byron wasn't worried at all. Well, he was a little bit. It was more of his childish jealousy in sharing the AI than anything else. He didn't care nor need to know about their pasts. He just needed to get the job done.

Redemption.

-.-.-.-

Analysis; desperation in current situation calls for extreme actions. Reasoning: four to one odds: Storm Andromeda's backup taken into account, Basilisk Centauri's damage also taken into account.

Probability of extra pilots increasing odds of survival: small to reasonable. Reasoning: EMP could disable me and in turn Byron should such a tactic be employed by hostiles. Chances of such tactic: high. Reasoning: no warning of extra pilots, and the same tactic worked well last time.

Should no EMP be deployed by hostiles: Jaeger will be ambidextrous – doesn't really help. Reaction times, strategy, and employment of said qualities: likely better.

Overall analysis: we are so very very screwed.

-.-.-.-

The three Rangers (if they could still be called that since they weren't even part of the PPDC) all felt the Drift-kick. That first momentary loss of sensation and motor control when the minds meld.

Everyone's pasts raced through their singular consciousness akin to the "life flashing before my eyes right before I die", preschool years, fun and oblivious. School years, recognising the system of life. The Kaiju attacks throughout it all.

Then, their pasts began to differ. Clarisse went straight into the military, focusing to do whatever it took to defend her home from the Kaiju, namely through being in a Jaeger. Veronica was a bit more flighty, skimming through a million job interviews, avoiding watching TV for the horrors it contained… it was then that she lost everything she knew and loved to the Kaiju. A survival story akin to Mako Mori's, but so much different. Byron's years were clouded… deliberately held back. Small glimpses of crime, biker thug life, drug dealings… sent to military prison to see if they could work the kinks out of him. Didn't work so much. Spent almost the rest of the entire Kaiju War in that prison. And when he was finally out, he called the suicide hotline; "Find me some Jaeger-Drift-Scientist or whatever that needs a live subject."

_I've done things I'm not proud of._

=Indeed=

The girls gasped at the new voice in their heads. One they had never heard before. "AI?" Veronica asked, staring wide-eyed at Byron, who nodded resignedly.  
And then, their most recent memories flashed past in the blink of an eye. The designing and building of the Valkyrie Chaos and Storm Andromeda. A month or two spent designing the Basilisk Centauri, and the next four and a half years building it. Byron's brain operations to twine him with the AI. Clarisse and Veronica being sorted out as perfectly Drift compatible pilots.

Then, the war.

"Ah, now we're ready," Byron rumbled. Veronica could have sworn she heard a slight tone of happiness in his voice.

=You did=

_Um… Hello? _Veronica thought back. She had forgotten that this would be a four-mind Drift, rather than just three.

_-So now what?-_ Clarisse asked, _-Are we gonna drop or what?-_

_Now we get out there and destroy those assholes._

=Oh goody=

_Since when did AI's get so sarcastic?_

_Since he's-_

=I thought I was female=

_Fine then. Since "SHE'S" been stuck in my head for five or so years. _

_-If you two would just stop arguing…-_ the other three could literally feel Clarisse's facepalm. Professionalism just drifts away in the Drift, doesn't it?

Their arguing/thinking/whatever the hell they wanted to call it was interrupted by Tendo's warning back at LOCCENT. "Hey, guys!" he shouted, trying to be heard, "Hostiles inbound and within range of engagement in about ten minutes! We're going to be deploying the shoulder-blades on the Basilisk. Andromeda is already deployed on top that hill you used as a diving board earlier. Good hunting, Rangers, and remember not to die on us."

"Redemtion," the pilots growled in response, the overwhelming feeling coming straight from Byron. The lights flared along the trim of the Basilisk Centauri as it prepared itself for the war that was never meant to be.

-.-.-.-

A lizard-like hiss came from the smooth, slick face of the being. It looked so reptilian yet so different. _–What is going on up there?– _It asked it's companion.

–_It is almost time– _It responded, looking back down to the murky depths. The bioluminescent glow of many creatures, big, small, and gigantic, covered their claimed seabed. A sudden burst of underwater lightning was all the pair needed to confirm their suspicions.

–_Oh yes, the waiting is over– _The second said, pushing the first towards one of the smaller, faster beasts. –_Alert the others, we strike in four tekra– _

It didn't wait for an answer. It merely swam downwards, trailing a clawed digit along the lines of biotechnology that covered every available nearby surface, a soft pulsing orange glow following every touch.

-.-.-.-


	4. Chapter 3 Point 5

_**Ring of Fire Interlude One (AKA Chapter Three Point Five)**_

-.-.-.-

**Just a quick little filler to keep you guys happy ;)**

**~Pyro**

-.-.-.-

"No way!" a child's voice yelled from the lounge, carrying itself quickly to the mother's ears. She smiled warmly at the memories her son and his friends got into when playing that silly little trading card game of theirs.

"My Category-IV Slip-Strike has higher stats, and your Mark-III Get-Off-Mah-Lawn doesn't have any backup or abilities left!"

"I call in heavy airstrike bombardment!"

"Dammit! Wait, do you actually have the funding for that?"

"Yeah!"

"Lemme-see!"

She sighed, taking another sip of coffee. Personally, she had once attempted to sort out one of these yelling matches. It had ended very badly, with an embarrassed son and a "rage-quitting" friend. She had learnt to let them sort out themselves.

"Why do you think they named that one Get-Off-Mah-Lawn anyway? It's Chinese."

"Maybe they just ran out of official names for it, haha!"

What she would never tell anyone, though, was that she knew that game inside and out. Two sides, Kaiju and Jaegers, had their own individual sets of cards and uniquely styled abilities. A Jaeger couldn't squeeze through anything, but a Kaiju couldn't launch tracking missiles, for example. And just like any other trading card game, they needed a summoning system, a whole bunch of other things, like Shatterdomes and Portals to house and launch the creature cards. Jaegers got summoned via funding and energy, assigned a Shatterdome, and boom; a fighter is in the field. The Kaiju had their "Precursors", their masters that summoned them via biomass and other things, sent through a Portal, etc, etc, etc…

Funny thing is… the guy who designed the game had actually gone to interview the only four people to have ever been or seen on the other side of the Portal, for accuracy. And maybe to help teach people about their aliened enemies via a game.

So the Jaegers and Kaiju fought to the death in brutal card-game imaginations, tearing the fictional other to tiny little bloody or oily pieces. Someone online had actually set up a simulator for almost every possible matchup in the game, which had been quite interesting, to say the least.

"My Kaiju is down three armour points, two speed, and two attack points. Plus he can't use his acid sac ability anymore… let's see, yours has…" the second voice trailed off, doing the calculations silently. Mother loved this part for nothing other than they were at least doing maths in some form or another.

"OK… they both die." Her son sighed, flicking his card into the Oblivion Bay "Graveyard" pile. Another cool thing unique to the Jaegers were their recycling abilities. Exile them from the graveyard – which was putting them out of the game entirely – and the next constructed Jaeger could be summoned for less funds. The post-death ability of the Kaiju were to contaminate the land of the local Shatterdome, making it produce less funding per turn unless the player had Harvesters.

It was all very complicated, as any trading card game could be. Every known Kaiju and Jaeger had a card for it, and there were even special cards for every pilot and Precursor. Well, the Precursor cards were mostly made up of concept art about the aliens, but they had made special ones to balance the game since human pilots could give their Jaeger bonuses in a fight.

Mother listened to the painless fun arguments and hypothetical what-ifs that strafed through all the games, wondering if maybe she should bring out her own deck and check the hobby-centre for another to play with.

"Hah! Win for the Kaiju! The earth is ours!" one successful child yelled triumphantly, but not in bad sportsmanship. "I honestly wasn't sure I was going to win this one."

"If I'd gotten that Jaeger out just one turn earlier you wouldn't of. Hey, should I check if Brad and Maxi can come around for a few games?"

"Maxi's a Jaeger Fly though; she hasn't got any Kaiju cards."

"And you're a Kaiju Groupie. What if we had a team game of Jaegers and Kaiju VS Jaegers and Kaiju?"

"Dude! The apocalypse is _on_!" the other child cried enthusiastically, gathering up and sorting out the cards.

Mother decided she wanted in on this Jaeger/Kaiju team hybrid match, because she knew Brad and his mother were away camping, but she didn't want to spoil it for her son. She was nodding to him the moment he poked his little head in the doorway. "I'll call her mother and see if she's available," Mother promised, but held up a finger. "But Brad is away on camp, remember?"

Her son's face fell abruptly, his hopes on the hybrid war dashed. "So… no apocalypse?"

Mother smiled sweetly. Time to give away her secret… "I've got some cards-"

"Yay! Fred, the apocalypse is back on!" the son called back towards the lounge before looking at Mother. "So are you a Jaeger Fly or a Kaiju Groupie?" he asked, highly interested.

"I happen to play fairly well with both decks," Mother nodded, reaching for the phone.

"So you're a Drifter!" the son cried happily, jumping around the table. That little six-year-old boy was a handful.

Mako grinned at her child's antics, recognising Raleigh's carefree influence. Yancy Pentecost Becket-Mori, a beautiful name for a handsome child. Mako may have been pregnant, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from enjoying her new family.


	5. Chapter 4

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Four**_

-.-.-.-

Mr. Church watched the screen silently, giving no impression of any kind of emotion as he saw the hostile Jaegers advance towards his Shatterdome.

"Alert them." Was all he said, flicking a hand towards one of the technicians, who immediately started working furiously to get the message out to "Them".  
This war was about to get interesting.

-.-.-.-

The Precursor watched the beast emerge from the portal. The humans would have called it a "Category-VI Kaiju", whatever that meant. He had gleaned much from his whisper of a connection those known as "Newt the Kaiju Groupie" and "Hermann". It had always intrigued him how these "Humans" operated. The amount of alarm the two humans gave off to their connection was… alarming. He couldn't think of a better word for it, anyway.

He closed his eyes… or what they would have called eyes… and his vision changed to that of "Newt's". Strange. A screen… and lots of the Defenders seemed to be… attacking each other?

–_Hold off the invasion!– _He ordered, stopping the Category-VI from surfacing. –_The insects are fighting themselves… we could use this to our advantage– _he suggested to the Hivemind.

=_WE WILL CRUSH THEM AS WE HAVE CRUSHED EVERY OTHER PITIFUL RACE WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED= _was the overwhelming response.

He sighed. That didn't go so well last time, but then again things were different now.

–_Then we attack–_ he sent, surrendering to what he knew could very well be suicidal. And so the massive Category-VI, gloriously named Nidhogg, slid along the ocean floor with a strike force of its smaller brothers and sisters. –_This time, we don't hold back_–

This war was about to get interesting.

-.-.-.-

Herc stared at the main screen at LOCCENT in disbelief. They were so screwed, he didn't have words for it.

"We need to evacuate. All non-vital personnel: get the heck out of here!" Tendo ordered over the Shatterdome Comms system, alerting everyone to the incoming threat. "I repeat, GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!"

The largest known signature ever seen had just been spotted on the radar. The same radar used to detect incoming Kaiju.

This war was about to get interesting.

-.-.-.-

The Basilisk stood just outside the Shatterdome doors, waiting for the detachable parts known as the _shoulder-blades_. It was a large platform-like pack that covered the AKM missile tubes on the Basilisk Centauri's back, but it contained quite a few more to compensate for the loss. The main advantage, however, was the way it allowed the Basilisk much broader shoulders, to match its solo pilot. If it had been attached inside the Shatterdome, the Jaeger would never have made it out the doors.

As the massive pack attached with a hiss and a gigantic clunk, the pilots inside shuddered slightly. This was a whole new appendage being Drifted in. It was a bit like suddenly having a tail, if Veronica was honest. She didn't normally have a giant growth on her upper spine; much less know how to deal with it.

"Just focus on the fight," Byron ordered. "AI can handle the rest."

"You're sure about that?" Veronica asked, not turning back to look at him. After getting used to Drifting in a new Jaeger, she noticed the slight similarities and differences between the mech; whereas the Valkyrie's Conn-Pod was the Jaeger's head, the Basilisk's was a free-floating section inside the head. Byron's memories were enough to let her know the section was designed to rotate in order to keep the pilot's gravitational orientation correct during head movement, which was a substantially larger amount than either woman was used to.

"No."

"_What?!_"

"That EMP in the last fight gave me some doubts. You two are the ones with access to the control panels anyway." Byron replied, rolling his shoulders and doing a quick flex. "Tendo! ETA?"

"Just rounding the island to get to our position," the technician replied hastily. "Visual conformation of one artillery, two tanks, and a brawler. Even with the Storm Andromeda on backup, you guys are going to have to be careful."

"Acknowledged. Anything that could disable us early?" Byron asked, just in case.

"Not that I can see. Good luck out there, you guys, you're gonna need it."

-.-.-.-

The Bermuda Triangle was a place best known for all the mysteries it produced. Ships and aircraft gone missing, the constant clouds and mist just stealing everything without a trace. Ghosts of times past popping up and dragging down the living ones.

Ah, home sweet home.

–_You really need to stop using those human phrases, friend_–

–_Is it my fault that I am so Drift-potent?_– He asked, watching his fellow Precursor closely. –_It is my job to investigate the humans via this link they established with me. If you think we could do a better invasion than last time without this espionage, do tell me_–

The Ambassador glared at the Precursor. Yes, he did think they could do better without getting to know their enemy, but he wasn't going to say that because he knew the chaos that a Symbioti could cause.

He also knew how vital they were. Their bioweapons would be near useless without those that guided them, but in order to do such a thing, the Symbioti had to distance themselves from the Hivemind, the species' collective consciousness. A bioweapon could not handle the entire Hivemind connected, and neither could the Symbioti. The Symbioti were unique in their mindset, connected to one bioweapon and one bioweapon only, but they could contact the Hivemind. It was a truly confusing process, one which the Ambassador could not be bothered thinking over right now.

Glaring at the one known as "Drifter" would not do him any good, it seemed. Since the Symbioti were removed from the Hivemind, they tended to gain a personality, and individuality; sometimes it was not for the good of the species. Drifter had experienced a second, third, and even a fourth connection once his bioweapon had been killed. That had never happened to another. This event, this strange occurrence, had brought him back from the brink of depression-suicide, as it sometimes happened to the Symbioti. The one major difference was he used the terms the insects used. The Precursors had never needed language before, but the introduction of one by Drifter was still disturbing.

–_If you knew what I knew_– Drifter said, the spines on his reptilian body rising, –_You would be doing a bit more planning_–

-.-.-.-

Deep inside a mountain… well, it wasn't really a mountain. It was just a heavily disguised Shatterdome.

"They" had been alerted. They were once known to be part of the final four. The world thought they had seen the last of "Them".

They were on the move.

-.-.-.-

**Sorry for taking so long. Well, I thought I should probably get what I have got out to you loverly peoples. Sorry this is so short (is it short?)**

**Next chapter will probably be more adorable family fun times with Mako and little Yancy Pentecost Becket-Mori… if I ever manage to remember his confuzzling array of last and middle names.  
So yeah, enjoy. **

**(CHAPTER IS SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE CHANGE IN FORM OF REFINEMENT. YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED IF SUCH A CHANGE HAPPENS. CAPS LOCK IS FUN AND I IS SLEEP DEPRIVED.)**

**~Pyro (because seriously, who could possibly ever get sick of seeing their signature?)**

**(UPDATE! Slight timezone re-arrangement going on. Re-reading and re-reviewing may be required) ^_^**

**R&R?**


	6. Chapter 5

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Five**_

**Yeah yeah, I know. I'm a sucky updater, and I always leave you guys in that state of "OMG I FREAKING LOVE THIS BUT WHY ISNT THERE _MMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!_"**

**I'm sorry. **

**My charge cable broke.**

**You would no _believe_ how many plot ideas went screaming through my head as I waited to get a replacement! **

**So yes, I'm very sorry, and will now let you get on with reading. (This is like first-draft cos I was in that big a rush to get this to you guys to make up for my computer breaking.)**

**~Pyro (WHO STILL LUVS ALL OF YOUZ AND DEDICATES THIS CHAPTER TO ALL WHO HAVE LOVINGLY TAKEN THE TIME TO REVIEW, FOLLOW, AND/OR ADD THIS TO THEIR FAVES. YOU ARE THE MOST AWESOMEST PEOPLE I KNOW!)**

-.-.-.-

Basilisk roared at the incoming Jaegers, setting its sights on the brawler. Andromeda would take care of the artillery Jaeger, but the tanks might cause problems.

"AI, initiate the download," Byron ordered, quickly acknowledging the girls' inexperience with a juggernaut-type Jaeger. It only lasted a second, a tiny burst of pain in all three heads, but Veronica and Clarisse immediately knew, somehow, the exact differences in their Jaegers.

=Download complete=

_Forget yourselves. Just lose yourself to the animals inside you. _

-.-.-.-

Drifter sped through the Precursor "fortress", looking for Bladehead. Blade would know exactly where it was.

All the Symbioti were once normal in appearance, but accommodations had to be made when they were mind-melded with their bioweapons. Physical accommodations. Bladehead had been mutated a huge amount, going from a spindly Bishop to an armoured hulk reminiscent of the one Newt the Kaiju Groupie knew as Knifehead. Also known for its "2500 Tonnes of Awesome", whatever that was.

–_BLADEHEAD_– Drifter yelled through the area's neural network, praying that his predatory... acquaintance was still on this side of the Portal. They had run it differently this time. An attempt at "stealth"; reinforcing the Portal with a receiver biomech-organism. So far they had managed to get the bioweapons out much faster, and in a much larger gathered force.

The only issue was that the insects had also prepared. The worst part was that the Hivemind was too stupid to take advantage of the current opportunity that was the human civil war.

Damn. Bladehead was no longer here. Drifter growled, clawing a fistful of Portal-Reef and crushing it into wet dust. His tail, thick and armoured with its three-pronged claw, whipped the water around him into frenzy. The Precursor's own mutations were quite disturbing even to his fellow Symbioti, as he know had four arms, two of which were large hammer-elbowed like Otachi's. That was what they had called his bioweapon, his Kaiju. Otachi.

Drifter could feel his connection with Newt and Hermann growing every day now. It angered him that the Hivemind had only decided to recall the Kaiju strike groups almost three hours _after _Drifter had suggested they wait. He had once been a big, armoured, strong, respected Ambassador. Now look at him.

A disgrace that continued on no matter how they tried to get rid of him.

–_I will crush them all_– Drifter silently vowed, one of his smaller secondary arms rising, forming a fist to crush a poor little shellfish that had wandered to close to the five-meter tall Precursor. –_Then I will crush the insects_–

-.-.-.-

"I don't suppose its worth asking if you felt that too?" Newt said nervously as he watched one of the bigger screens in their new K-Science lab. Despite what was going on, WWIII was the _least _of his worries.

"I doubt it," Andrew laughed, flipping a scalpel about in his fingers with just enough precision to make Jack Sparrow jealous.

"I wasn't asking you, bat-boy!"

"That's hurtful." Andrew pouted, turning away. "So what were you talking about anyway?"

Hermann whacked him upside the head with his cane, before hobbling closer to Newt. He was just as unsure of what was going on as anybody else. Jaegers fighting Jaegers, sudden random cravings for meat and other things he had found disgusting only a few short years ago. Like coffee.

What was wrong with a good cuppa tea, anyway?

"Yes, Newton. I did feel it," he whispered hoarsely into Newt's ear, "and I don't like what it means."

Andrew shrugged, not really caring anyway. "So can anybody tell me what's going on outside or do I need to go hook myself up to the computer again?"  
"NO!" the other K-Scientists yelled, backing away from the blind man hurriedly.

"There's just a war going on, anyway," Newt told him, pacing around their workspace while chewing on his fingernails. "Jaeger-on-Jaeger action. Basilisk Centauri and Storm Andromeda VS a buncha others."

"Call-signs?"

"Nobody's identified them yet, Hermann. We've just gotta hope for the best."

-.-.-.-

Drifter froze. The humans… he could feel something different in his connection to them…

And that's when it hit him.

They knew.

_**THEY KNEW!**_

-.-.-.-

**R&R? (you know you want too... plus reviews = inspiration) :D**

**(When corruption dont work, try bribery!)**


	7. Chapter 6

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Six**_

**Those two scientists have been busy since induction to the Blue Reef Shatterdome project ;)**

**Since this chapter is made up of interviews in a book/audiobook thing, the format is slightly different. It'll only be like this for interviews in "Great Minds Think Alike" :)**

**~Pyro**

-.-.-.-

**Great Minds Think Alike**

A Co-Dependant Study of the Drift conducted by

Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb

-.-.-.-

**Part Seven: The Immediate Aftermath and Discoveries on Ghost-Drifting**

Interview One: Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori

-.-.-.-

Newt: _So, lets get this started!_

Hermann: _As our Marshall had said, _"You can always find me in the Drift," _– has that proven true, Mr. Becket?_

Raleigh: _C'mon guys, you can call me Raleigh. But… yeah. You can find them in the Drift. _

Mako: _It is extremely difficult to explain-_

Newt: _It's like Ghost-Drifting with the dead?_

Raleigh: _(chuckles) Yeah, you could say it like that. That distant feeling in the back of your mind that you aren't alone; that way I found out that Mako doesn't like turkey._

Mako: (punches Raleigh's arm lightly)

Hermann: _Yes, this Ghost-Drifting phenomenon- I have a theory on it. _

Newt: (looks appalled) _**WE **__have a theory on it!_

Hermann: (rolls eyes as Raleigh laughs) _Yes, we have a theory. When you two closed the Breach, did you feel more connected to each other? Even more than when Drifting?_

Raleigh: (looks shocked)_ Yeah- I- we- … yeah. _(looks slightly dumbstruck. Mako is slightly peeved by this)

Mako: _Yes. We figured nobody else would ever know about it, seeing as we were the last true Drifters at the time. Nobody told us about your own Drifting with the Kaiju brain until we got back._

Newt: (can't seem to sit still) _Exactly! When you blew up the Portal, it must have produced some kind of giant neural feedback pulse! _

Raleigh: (looks exceedingly confused) _Uhh…how?_

Hermann: _This theory revolves around the Kaiju and the Precursors. As a Hiveminded species with connections across _dimensions _of all things, the closing of the Portal may have had an adverse effect on the psychological plane. _

Raleigh: (now looks even more confused) _…so we got an extra Drift-kick?_

Newt: _Pretty much._

Mako: _That would explain a lot of things… _(looks thoughtful)

Raleigh: (suddenly brightens up) _Oh yeah, are you guys coming to our wedding next week?_

Newt: _Co-workers and now lovers? _(casts sideways glance at Hermann – assumes he doesn't see and therefore doesn't edit this later)  
EDIT BY NEWT: JEEZ MAN, WAY TO DROP A HINT

Hermann: _We'd love to. _(doesn't look overly enthusiastic) _But anybody who knew you wouldn't have even dreamed of this happening so soon. _

Mako: _And that is where your Drift theory comes in. _

Hermann: _Exactly, my dear. That psychological kick probably threw the Precursors off as well. But we need to back up for a moment; as long as you have the memories of the deceased, it feels like they are still there. _

Raleigh: (thoughtfully) _And sometimes they take on a mind of their own. Back in the Anteverse… Yancy was there, after I'd ejected Mako he was yelling at me to get a move on. _

Mako: (looks at Raleigh) _And then floating on the ocean…_

Raleigh: _He was sitting on your pod. _(sniffs sadly) _He gave me one last thumbs-up and shit-eating grin… and then he faded._

Newt: (stops pacing around the room) _Like a ghost.  
_

Mako: _Nobody alive has ever Drifted with Sensei though. He may still be in the Drift, but…_

Raleigh: (chuckles) _We could always ask Herc-_

Newt: (alarmed) _Shit! We forgot to invite him to the interview!_

-.-.-.-

**Part Eight: Drift-Tech**

An Interview with Andrew Viscus, Drift-Tech Protégé and unparalleled AI expert

(Also unfortunately inducted to the Blue Reef Shatterdome project)

-.-.-.-

Newt: _To kick off this interview, you should probably tell us about your background, right?_

Hermann: (faceplams and groans)

Andrew: (laughs) _Yeah, I guess I should. All my life, I've been like, uber-interested in Digital Technology. In school I was the code-support kid, wrote the college website, all that. And then whats-her-name Caitlin Lightcap came outta nowhere with this whole Drifting Technology. _

Newt: (confused) _Shouldn't the part about the Kaiju war come up before the Drifting technology?_

Andrew: _Well, yeah of course, but this was just a whole buncha concepts being thrown around, you know? It was the whole "Dragons Den" thing going on, trying to get funding for her ideas. _

Hermann: _And they obviously rejected it._

Andrew: (laughs and leans back in his chair) _She actually got thrown out for that particular one. No idea what happened after that but at the time I was working on an AI skeleton for an air-gapped system and the concept intrigued me. _

_So yeah, a while later the Kaiju showed up and totally raped San Francisco and Manila. Did you see that pile of shit one of 'em left behind?! A Kaiju-provided example of just how much trouble we were in. _

_Then there was the Jaegers. A few more Kaiju later and Karloff took the facepalm of death. _That's _when I was introduced to the PPDC._

Newt: (startled) _Wait, you've actually been in the PPDC from the beginning?!_

Andrew: (with a "duh" look) _Yeah. Who do you think designed the Jaeger AI and the holographic shit the Rangers were using?_

Hermann: (seriously) _A highly skilled team of tech engineers._

Andrew: _Ah yes, the rest of my team. I did all the work, they made it look pretty. _(shrugs) _At least we were all doing what we were good at. Anyways, on the way to the "Jaeger Academy" or whatever in the frozen wastes of whatever bloody place they put it, I met the good professor. She was really surprised to hear that I was in the room when they literally kicked her idea into the dust with the Drifting. _

Newt: (laughs) _I suppose she didn't take it that well?_

Andrew: (smiles at the memory) _You could say that. But then again I was practically begging her for more info on it and how it worked. That flight was about eight hours, I think, and we only managed to discuss a tiny fraction of it. _

_So, that's where my job is for the next few years; refining and updating the digital side of Jaegers while simultaneously keeping LOCCENT up to scratch. _

Newt: _So what happened when the PPDC shut down? We didn't see you in Hong Kong._

Andrew: _I was busy._

(a moment of silence, waiting for Andrew to continue. He doesn't)

Hermann: _Care to explain? _

Andrew: (removes sunglasses) _Well for a start I was blinded. _(sounds highly annoyed) _But… yeah, this is one of the crucial things that got me into the Blue Reef Shatterdome project long before you two. _

_Caitlin had been working on the Crimson Typhoon triple-Pons system, and I was there, taking notes and generally trying to learn more about it when the accident happened. _(glares at Newt) _It was actually one of _your _shipments that did it. Some idiot was packing the crates – jars fulla Kaiju Blue. Apparently the most recent Kaiju, some bugger by the name of Raythe, had gone completely untracked after passing through an underwater land bridge due to some exceedingly non-toxic Kaiju Blue. _

Newt: _Oh, I remember that one! He visited a lot of places before Cherno Alpha took him out._

Andrew: _Yeah, including a little scuffle outside the lab me and Lightcap were working in. So, by your request, samples were gathered and then screwed around with. That idiot packing them was obviously and untrained git – he _opened _one of the jars! The gathered fumes killed him, but he was oh-so-kind enough to throw the jar in my direction. _(only now do we notice that Andrew's clouded white sightless eyes contain the slightest hue of neon blue)

Newt: _Shit man, I had no idea._

Andrew: (waves him off) _Don't worry about it. If it weren't for that accident we wouldn't have discovered what we now know about AI Drift Compatibilty. The neural load needed to drive the Jaegers isn't hardware-based, it's literally _processing-_based. _

Hermann: (thoughtfully) _So you could effectively _code _the Drift?_

Andrew: _Pretty much. Afterwards, me and Caitlin went off the radar when her Jaeger got new pilots – we were working on this exact thing; AI's in the Drift. One thing led to another- _(is interrupted by Newt)

Newt: _Isn't she taken?_

Andrew: (shrugs) _If you'd let me finish… one thing led to another and before you know it, I can see again! _

Newt: (pulls the finger at Andrew, gets appropriate "Eff off!" response) _Holy shit. This is awesome, dude!_

Hermann: _How does that work?_

Andrew: _Well, the brain is made up of a series of data-centers, and our consciousness is just a set of timed electrical signals to those data-centers, right? Right. Now, I've developed an electronic implant for the brain that _learns. _It's an uncoded AI that's in Perma-Drift with the… uhh, what would you call them…? Implant-ee? Anyways, the user Drifts with the AI, and boom. It analyzes everything in your brain, everything your thinking, links it to the physical grey matter, and that's just it. _

_We're still quite unsure of the limits of AI neurality, how much of the load they could take for a Jaeger. With Byron, well over 90% of the neural load is taken by the AI. He just flexes a finger, and it does a bazillion recalibrations, recodings, and amplifies his command to the mech. Solo-pilot, done. _

Hermann: _That doesn't explain how you got your sight back._

Andrew: _Oh yeah, I just installed my own AI and I'm now in Perma-Drift with it. Plus I installed this radar thingy. Remember that old Dare-Devil movie? How the kid loses his sight via radioactive waste and then starts seeing like bats do? That's how I see things. Plus now I can see through walls… _(chuckles evilly)

Hermann: (faceplams) _Somehow I truly can't see this as a good idea._

Andrew: (shrugs) _Hey, if it weren't for my AI's keeping the Shatterdomes and LOCCENTs of the world running, we'd be in a whole lotta trouble. The AI were actually in the Jaegers with the pilots-slash-Rangers-slash-whatever since the second generation. If it's a Mark-II or better, one of my AI's 'ill be in there keeping the power sources regulated, coding for everything the pilot orders via control-panel _on the spot.

Newt: (whistles appreciatively) _They can really code that fast?_

Andrew: _Yeah. They _are _the code, and can think about… _(mutters) _what were the specs…? _(he quietly murmurs something with a lot of numbers in it – neither of us can hear what he says)

Newt: _Any time now…_

Andrew: _Yeah yeah yeah… look, a pair in the Drift can think about a thousand times faster than a person in REM sleep, which is around ten thousand or so times faster than a fully aware and awake normal person thinks. Now the AI, with the processor cores available in the Jaegers and LOCCENT, can think about a billion times faster than Drifters. If they so choose to, they can run a thousand full-time full-scale fully-realistic simulations in the time it takes for a person to blink. _

_And I know that sounds completely unrealistic, but to them time is just a variable, not an inevitable. All they know is that when Raleigh presses the "Swords" button in the GD Conn-Pod, he needs the swords. There is no current code for the swords, just a set of mechanical firmware options – if they used the same code for bringing out the swords twice, they'd either break or malfunction the second time due to differences in situation. _

Hermann: _Are you sure about this?_

Andrew: _Early testing of blades, way back on Tacit Ronin, showed that blade ejection systems were far too rigid for their own good. It actually lost because of a fang-blade malfunction – they were going to attempt to cut off the Kaiju's claw to defend from an overhead strike, but the momentum of moving the arm upwards- _(here Andrew acts out a Knight crouching low to raise a shield over his head) _–acted against the motors driving the blade out. It only got about half-way deployed and just nicked the Kaiju's wrist. Bada-boom bada-bing, Kaiju claw redirected towards the Conn-Pod rather than shoulder-severing. That actually managed to smash the Conn-Pod around enough to break the structure of the neck area._

Newt: _So like… _(fake-grabs Hermann's head and pulls a twisting motion)

Andrew: _Exactly. Killed the pilots, but left the Conn-Pod intact. I can't remember the specifics after that but I think the Kaiju was a little too obsessed with the whole "Teabagging Ceremony" and just kept ripping apart at the Jaeger's corpse for a while. Sometimes I wonder how smart the Kaiju truly are… by the time whatsisface was done with Tacit, we'd deployed two more Jaegers to take him down._

Hermann: _That is very interesting. _

Newt: (giggles uncontrollably) _Kaiju Teabagging!_

Andrew: _So, that's my history. What're we supposed to talk about now?_

Hermann: _I genuinely have no idea anymore. _

-.-.-.-

**Sorry if they got off-topic but the story was just flowing where it will, and yeah. Can you believe they have a scientific book-a-ma-bob published? **_**That was co-dependant?**_

**Yeah, neither can I and I **_**WROTE **_**the damn thing.  
Anyways, keep on burnin'!**

**~Pyro**

**R&R?**


	8. Chapter 7

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Seven**_

**Special thanks to Shadowboy for Colin and Jack Grayson! **

**~Pyro**

-.-.-.-

_I fell into a burning ring of fire,_

_I went down, down, down and the flames went higher,_

_And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire..._

_The Ring of Fire_

Colin Grayson groaned and rested his forehead against the cool window of the truck he was sitting in, the brunette not being very happy about having to be on the road so early. The rain pattering down on the windshield didn't help much. His brother Jack, older by four years, simply nudged him as he finally started the highlander, a smile on his face.

Then a familiar smell entered the truck. Colin's blue eyes popped open. Tim Horton's Double Double. "Maybe the coffee will help ya appreciate Johnny Cash a little more, eh?" Jack asked, a stupid grin plastered on his face. Like any older brother, he took a bit of pleasure in seeing the younger one flailing about at times.

Colin yawned and nodded, sipping on the warm liquid, practically magic as it went down his throat. Neither of the brothers were night owls, so the sugar was welcomed warmly as they drove back to a life they had left nearly seven years before, when Colin was only fifteen.

The life of a Jaeger Pilot.

-.-.-

The brothers weren't the smartest pilots out there, but they had the will to fight, a good heart, and most importantly, they could fight as one. And when it came down to it, that's what mattered. Growing up, if there was a fight involving one of the brothers, you could count on the other showing up. They had been recruited after a rather wild night at a bar, where the brothers managed to knock out three Canadian Marines. Sgt. Fury, later tasked with leading the Howling Commandos, which was a collection of Jaeger Pilots from North America, had congratulated them, and asked them to join up. With a little bit of booze in him, Jack accepted on the spot, and Colin simply shrugged, following his brother's choice.

But that was years ago. Now Jaegers were being built all over the world, by every country. The Great White North was trying to stay peaceful through this whole thing, though Colin did hear rumours about Canadian Jaegers that went by the codenames of "Winter Chinook" and "Yukon Echo" were being built in and old NORAD base. But neither would even come close to the Grayson's Jaeger, the CEF Crusher. Named after the Canadian Expeditionary Force from World War One, the Jaeger was so mixed and matched; it didn't actually fit into any class! The whole thing was mainly black, with red accents sued here and there, and white symbols plastered all over it, due to the parts coming from different countries. The main head of the Jaeger came from Russia, an Energy Cell Refinery that made the Jaeger look like Cherno Alpha, and still had the Russian Jaeger Program Symbol emblazoned on the side. The chest, a T-16 Angel Wing chest plate from Australia, provided them better balance when fighting over on the West Coast of Canada, and even more so when they had to serve a short stint up in the Nunavut and helped out when the Jaeger, which stood at roughly 225ft tall, launched itself at the Kaiju. The shoulders were also mixed up, and the Jaeger ended up having a shoulder of a Mark-V Jaeger, and a Mark-III Jaeger, but it wasn't really important when it came down to it, just gave them faster punches. Speaking of punches, the Jaegers' weapons were a Tesla fist (Which Colin operated) and a sting blade on the opposite arm, leaving it at a fairly short range.

But range didn't really matter. The Jaeger moved like a greased weasel, and fought like a grizzly bear.

And so far, nothing had truly beaten it.

-.-.-.-

Colin was jarred out of his thoughts as they car halted and his brother punched him gently in the shoulder. He blinked a couple times, realizing he had been reflecting on his Jaeger for the whole car ride, and they were at the airport. And his coffee was cold.

Jack, still the awake and aware brother, groaned as Colin stumbled out of the truck just to get hit by a stray baggage train. He was going to have to train him to wake up early again. Back in the Kaiju War Colin could've been fully capable of piloting within ten minutes within waking. Now, two hours on the road and he wasn't even awake enough to watch the bloody road. "Colin!" Jack yelled, urging his brother to get off the road.

"Yeah, yeah…" Colin yawned again, stumbling over to grab his bags.

-.-.-.-

Colin could remember the day the CEF was wrecked almost as easily as he could get into a fight. He took the window seat, letting the shifting morning sky distract his eyes while his mind drifted into the past, absentmindedly tracing the scar on his left cheek, a faint X. Jack had an identical one on his right cheek; reminiscent of a particularly rough battle – their final battle.

2024, the CEF Crusher falls, too damaged to be repaired in time for Operation Pitfall. They all knew that if the War didn't end by the time the CEF was repaired they'd all be dead anyway, so they left.

They went back home.

Then, years later, they had gotten the call from their Marshall, the man in charge of the Shatterdome their Jaeger was stationed in, practically moments before the breaking news of World War Three. It kinda sucked that this was how they were going to return, but at least they'd be playing their part in this war. Jaeger pilots were seemingly easy to find. Good Jaeger pilots were pretty damn hard to get. Jack and Colin had gotten in purely through natural skill and a little bit of training, and were defeated only because of pure bad luck.

It hadn't stopped them from killing the Kaiju, though. They'd damn well decapitated it, but that was all. Trying to walk back to base had been completely out of the question, as was anything other than ejecting.

Ah, the traumatic life of a Jaeger pilot.

-.-.-.-

Mr. Church checked the map, looking up at the wall of screens with a small smile on his face.

Things were going all according to plan.

Now all he needed to do was call the ceasefire. It was simple, really: all the Shatterdome leaders of the world in a single place along with most of the Jaeger pilots on the planet.

He turned his seat around, got up, and strode calmly down the halls. The secondary phase of the Alert plan had been completed, and the two monstrosities were on their way.

All according to plan.

He stopped at a single window, not a single emotion on his face as he watched the horrific procedure inside. Droplets of blue and red splattered lightly against the glass, playing havoc with the light, a terrible swirl of colours along Church's face. He smiled again, a cruel predatory grin on the face of a seemingly harmless man.

"All according to plan," he whispered.

-.-.-.-

**O_O**

**Is Mr. Church starting to creep out anybody else?**

**~Pyro le weirdly fast updater (for once)**

**R&R? **


	9. Chapter 8

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Eight**_

**With some helpful pressuring from Glitchrr36... Yet another chapter so soon!**

**~Pyro**

-.-.-.-

Drifter was outraged. He was _beyond _furious. Those… K-Scientists, those _insects_ dared to… whatever it was they did?! Drifter was that angry he wasn't thinking straight, rage blinding his vision and hatred clouding his thoughts.

They wanted to attempt their own espionage against him. They wanted to undermine his entire plan!

In a fit of fury, Drifter did what the Precursors would have deemed unthinkable.

He was going to steal the humans.

-.-.-.-

Newton Geiszler shivered at his workstation; analyzing a small Kaiju sample he'd been sent. It was good to know that Hannibal, despite being _eaten_ for chrissakes, didn't hate his guts.

The structure of Kaiju bones and talons was quite remarkable. Throughout the "layers" of the talons lay hyper-condensed shells of a chitinous substance. Bone, chitin, bone, chitin, bone, talon. Despite the amazing and sometimes ridiculous randomness that always occurred in biological organisms, Newt couldn't help but spot a near mathematical ratio in the layers.

His head jerked up suddenly, staring straight at where he knew Hermann was, hiding his aged smile behind a book and a ladder. They both knew the Drift had completely changed them, but they never could have even imagined it would have to this degree.

Newt shook his head quickly in an attempt to clear it, trying to stay focused on his task. It'd never been easy for him, even when he was doing something like this. Something he actually _enjoyed_. Unfortunately, all his shaking did was knock over his carefully set up project.

"God dammit!" he exclaimed, picking it up and re-adjusting the magnifying glass. Now he was going to have to find the insects again.

Wait, what?

_It's n-nothing… _he thought, hands shaking once more. _But it isn't nothing. _

A little _bump_ on the table gave him a fright, and boy did he jump. One twitch was all it took to send his sample flying onto the floor. "_Jesus_, Hermann," Newt gasped, looking at the cuppa tea his companion had brought as though it was out to get him.

"Sorry. I thought this brew might help with the nerves," Hermann apologised, a scene that nobody could ever remember happening during the Kaiju War.

Newt nodded his thanks, practically gulping down the "calming" tea. It was a step down from energy drinks and coffee, but he had to admit it _did _have a soothing quality to it.

–_I wouldn't count on it–_

CRASH!

Newt stood frozen in shock. He'd dropped his tea, he'd dropped his sample, and now he might've just lost his marbles while he was at it. _I'm not going crazy I'm not going crazy I'm not going crazy-_

–_Oh but you are… and you aren't the only one who is going to suffer, NEWT! You will all regret not simply accepting your fate, to lay down and die. All of you!–_

Oh shit.

-.-.-.-

Oh shit indeed.

"That was one hell of a fight," Veronica groaned, slipping into one of the armchairs the three had left scattered through the rec-room. She'd fared slightly worse than the other two, since she didn't share their muscled builds. She wasn't designed for tanking. "That last kill was pretty amazing, though."

Clarisse nodded silently, recalling the feeling of dread she'd had when the brawler had managed to pin down their arms. It had almost pulled a fuel burn on them, using the Gipsy Danger style torso.

Right at the last moment, they'd bitten onto the Conn-Pod and unleashed their own fuel burn mechanism. When a Jaeger was powered by three nuclear cores, a _lot _of waste heat was produced. The Basilisk just happened to use it as Dragons-Breath.

Bite. Unleash the burn. Pull back.

All that was left after the shrill screeching of the laser-like attack was a melted Conn-Pod and two incinerated bodies.

"We killed ten people today." Byron said, sitting in his own seat. "Four of those belong to the Andromeda, two to me, and the rest I share with you."

It was a sobering revelation, but when the world was suddenly at war again, it didn't feel like the worst thing that could happen.

"On the upside we've got enough salvageable parts to build two more Jaegers and speed up the repairs on the ones we've got."

"Fat lot of good that'll do us if somebody _else _decides we'd be easy pickings, Volt-Head." Veronica replied, holding her head. All three of them were suffering with extreme Drift-Hangovers. Treyvon and Thalia weren't suffering at all… rather they were dealing with the just as extreme effects of disconnection from the Drift. The two were little more than teenagers. Everyone expected for them to go off and deal with the need for closeness in their own way.

"Urgh. Can either of you see straight?" Byron asked, blinking a few times and shaking his head. Everything was all… extra-bright, his head hurt, and he had this bloody annoying ringing in his ears.

"I can see fine, I've just got this horrible pounding going on in my head," Clarisse answered, holding a wet washcloth on her face with one hand while holding Veronica's with the other.

"I gotta go find Andrew…" Byron muttered, getting up. His balance was way off, judging by the bang and the dent he left in the shelving.

"Are you OK?" Veronica asked, wobbly herself but still standing. She tried to help the mountain of a man up again, but she really wasn't the person for the job.

_I'm not a tank!_

"I don't… AI isn't responding." Byron staggered to get up, holding on to one of the supports but still swaying uncertainly. He growled in annoyance, hating every single moment of disability.

"Shitshitshitshitshit," Veronica whispered frantically, reaching for one of the Shatterdome's phone-box-communicator-thingymajiggies. God, what they call them? She couldn't be bothered thinking it out right now and just called LOCCENT instead – "Tendo! Where the hell is Andrew? Yeah that Andrew. Byron's barely standing and I don't know what the heck is going on! Something about AI, anyway. Yeah, make sure they're strong ones though. NO I'M NOT ASKING FOR EYE CANDY! DO YOU KNOW HOW HEAVY THAT BRUTE IS!? Oh my freaking god, Tendo…"

Clarisse, exhausted, had simply fallen asleep in her seat. Two hours-long Drifts, two new minds Drifted, and three full-on battles… if she wasn't deserving of some rest, she'd probably have killed someone by now.

"Hey, Byron!" Veronica yelled right in the heaving man's ear, "Andrew's on his way. Don't you dare die on us now!"

-.-.-.-

**Oh noes a cliffy!**

**~Pyro le Inspired (seriously I'm wondering if I'll ever get sick of having that miraculous high of "HOLY SHIT I CAN GET SOME WORK DONE ON THAT STORY!" lol...)**

**Oh yeah, work is kinda postponed on Pacific High for now since I'm high on Ring of Fire. Rest assured IT IS NOT ABANDONED AND NEVER WILL BE!**

**R&R? (help me get my updates out _even quicker_?!) **


	10. Chapter 9

_**Ring of Fire Chapter Nine**_

-.-.-.-

**Hai dere little reader-peoples! I'm still on an inspiration high, so... CHAPTER!**

**~Pyro**

-.-.-.-

"Welcome, and good evening. Here are our top stories tonight;  
Today has seen the start of World War Three, five nuclear disasters, and the deaths of almost one hundred thousand people. To add to this, the loss of almost twenty three Jaegers outright, with another thirty heavily damaged, has left humanity at a huge disadvantage should a second Kaiju War ever occur, say lead experts.  
A ceasefire has been called for by the political leaders of many countries, including the US, Russia, and China. While a meeting has not been officially set yet, a strong candidate for hosting is the Hong Kong Shatterdome, an emplacement that has yet to draw a side.  
A reported anomaly of sonar pings has the military powers of the world worried. While it was unknown what could have caused the global Kaiju sensors to be tripped, backtracing and investigation to all possible areas of Kaiju infestation have suggested it may have simply been a hack. Global digital security measures are being reinforced as we speak.  
Now we cross live to the White House, where the President of the United States is currently giving a speech calling for ceasefire…"

-.-.-.-

"Dammit Byron," Andrew swore under his breath as he directed them to place Byron _carefully _onto the operating table.

"Could somebody tell me what the heck is going on?" Veronica asked, trying her best to follow the action. Herc would be wanting the lot of them later for debriefing, and possibly also dragging in any salvageable parts the regular crews couldn't pull in.

Andrew shooed away the medics, strapping Byron's unconscious form down onto the table. It was an interesting table, one built especially for this purpose. "Byron was never meant to Drift with anyone. _Ever_. And now he goes off with you two," Andrew flicked a hand in Veronica's general direction, "and this is what happens."

"I thought he just had worse Drift-Hangover than usual," Veronica said, shrugging helplessly. She'd seen Andrew go through a few of these procedures on Byron, so she helped him set up – getting the anaesthetic mask on, securing anything that he may have missed.

"That's the problem – _it is_!" Andrew exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air and accidentally impaling a scalpel into his message board. "Ah, oops. Look, you know he's got the AI implant, right?"

Veronica nodded. Andrew may have been blind but in actuality it felt like he just couldn't read.

"Good. Now do you know how I coded this AI?" he asked, not expecting her to know.

Veronica shook her head.

"He's in Perma-Drift with it."

Veronica gasped. "But-"

Andrew groaned, grabbing the scalpel and pressing a button on the operating table's control panel. "Yeah, implications aplenty. You know how they tell you not to drink to get rid of a hangover? Same thing applies with Drifting. You don't Drift to get rid of a Drift-Hangover, and don't even get me started on Drunk Jaeger Piloting!" he yelled, throwing his arms up in the air again. A seemingly favourite emphasis of his.

Veronica snorted, trying to hold in her laughs. Drunk Jaeger pilots? She might just have to try that sometime.

"Look, Vee, this Perma-Drifting is like trying to drown in alcohol to get rid of your hangover. _IT AINT GONNA WORK!_"

"This isn't gonna kill him, is it?" Veronica asked, pointing at Byron.

"No, but he's gonna be real pissed when he wakes up and finds out he hasn't got AI anymore." Andrew sighed and shook his head. "This isn't going to be fun by any stretch of the imagination. At best, he'll be ready for re-sync with AI in about six hours. At worst, he's going to be flipping well brain-dead by the time I pull out AI."

"Does AI even have a name yet?"

"We just call it AI. Why do you ask?" Andrew said, starting the operation. There goes about two weeks worth of hair growth…

"Well, in the Drift it referred to itself as female. Her voice is very similar to the LOCCENT's AI."

Andrew thought it over for a moment. "Two possibilities. Either this AI is gaining an emergent personality of its own, which wasn't the plan, or it's in the secondary stage of assimilation."

"Assimilation?"

"Eating his mind from the inside out; also not part of the plan. You do know that this is an entirely experimental uhh… project, right?" Andrew asked, grabbing something off the side-table. "Ah, pass me that cable," he told Veronica, pointing across the room.

"Well, sorta. I didn't know there was the chance of this being _lethal_!" she answered, fetching the whole damn trolley. Andrew would undoubtedly need something else from it later.

"Yeah. Neither did I until about two months in. I just figured it would _copy_ him, not _diverge _from him! Good god, I never expected _this_!" he gestured angrily at Byron before continuing to cut away bits in order to get at the circuitry inside. Right at the base of Byron's skull there was a port, and the circuitry leading away from that spread through the man's brain and down his spinal cord. Andrew had installed a second circulatory system, powered by Byron's own heartbeat, among other things. At the center of that second system lay all the hardware AI could ever require while Drifting with Byron. Hyperdense datacrystal memory-drives and a tap into all the billions of processors and microprocessors in the human brain, which was still a billion times more efficient than current computers. It was amazing, really.

"AI was supposed to become seamlessly a part of him. To do that, I had to remove _every single barrier _I had ever created. Things designed to prevent it going SkyNet on us. Things to prevent it from chasing rabbits."

"It never did that when we Drifted with it in the Basilisk," Veronica told him, deciding to get a better look at Byron's abs while he was out and had his shirt off. She ran a hand along his chest, tracing the muscles and scars downwards. "Hot," she muttered, "but not what I'm looking for…" she breathed, stepping back.

"Interesting… it does have the processing power to go through the entire internet in less than half an hour though. Are you sure it wouldn't have been able to flash-read your life?" Andrew asked. He was getting an awful lot of blood on his hands like this.

"Pretty sure. Byron did do this "download" thing though. Just one order – suddenly Clarisse and I knew everything about the Jaeger. Limitations, weapons, fighting style… the lot."

Andrew didn't bother looking at her. Not that he could, anyway. "What's the OS?"

"Vinn-9-18 Trident X."

"Height?"

"400ft."

"Weight?"

"Even AI can't compute that," Veronica answered, rolling her eyes. Then a bolt of inspiration struck her. "What was it that prompted you to try putting an AI in the Drift? You know, to pilot a Jaeger?"

Andrew paused for a moment. "There was this one girl in Australia, down at the Sydney Shatterdome… she was, uhh, was pretty good with AI's," he chuckled. "Sylvia Mansen, I think her name was. She Drifted with an AI on a tablet, and judging by the blood left behind, it wasn't strong enough."

Veronica frowned. "What do you mean? Blood left behind?"

"They never found her, as far as I know. Other fluids found with the blood suggested a seizure or something like it. Took the techies a week to sort out Vulcan Spectre's programming again. And then, one slight glitch later, killed the pilots in the middle of a fight. Funnily enough the timing was perfect – the Jaeger falling down was enough to kill the Kaiju, too." Andrew answered, plugging the cable into the server on the trolley and Byron's skull. "But that's where my inspiration came from. It also got me thinking on what it actually takes to drive a Jaeger. It aint hardware, it's processing."

Veronica thought it over in her head, leaning on the wall. "So if that's all there is to it then why did this girl still bug out?"

Andrew grinned and wagged a finger at her. "Ah, that's exactly where the problem lies. The AI needs somewhere to live, somewhere to actually do the computing. Therefore, hardware. I honestly don't know what happened but I'm pretty sure a simple tablet wouldn't have the kind of power needed to run a Drift-capable AI. At least, not at Jaeger standards."

"So it is the hardware."

"No no no no, that's completely wrong. It's the processing that does it, it's a _neural_ interface! The connection is that the hardware is what we use to house our processing. We are AI's in biological computers. Our brain dies, we get deleted." Andrew stated, finishing his work.

Veronica rolled her eyes. "So I take it you aren't into religion?"

Andrew shrugged. "Actually that's one of my other projects our sponsor has me working on; immortality." He explained, tapping his head. "It's all in the Drift, my dear. It's all in the Drift."

-.-.-.-

Drifter knew he was heading in the right direction. The giant footprints lead this way… and the random hunks of metal lying around were also a good sign. It was dark now, but that didn't matter to Drifter. He didn't need the sun to see down this deep.

A single blink brought down the secondary lids over his four eyes, covering them with some bioluminescent fluid. Newt would have related it to night-vision goggles, but blue.

–_Oh how they are all going to hate me for this– _Drifter mused. _–The humans will hate me for stealing their stuff, and the Hivemind will hate me for stealing the humans' stuff–_

He knew that he was too small to be detected by the Anti-Kaiju systems, and he was far too distant from the Hivemind to be interrupted. All according to ill-advised plan.

Wait.

Drifter felt a shift in the water… an exceedingly large shift. _–JAEGER!– _

One of the massive robots was still active! The Symbioti mentally cursed himself, speeding away from the search lights attached to the mech. What was it still doing online at this time of the night?!

Drifter delved behind an intact chunk of reef near the unnatural grey island. Once he was sure he was safe from the probing beams of light, he searched through his connections to Newt and Hermann. Hermann was asleep, his mind boring and uninteresting. Useless, too.

Ah, but Newt… yes… Newt was still awake, tossing and turning in his bed, fearing the night. _–Go on, little Newt, fall asleep…– _he whispered to the human, his Precursor voice rasping like a lizard's, but as piercing as chalk scraping across a blackboard. _–I promise to make sure it'll be as slow and as painful as possible!– _Drifter cackled, a truly horrific sound.

They knew…

-.-.-.-

"Sir, they are in position and awaiting your orders."

"I distinctly remember their orders being given back when they were told to move out," Mr. Church reminded the poor subordinate calmly, not once looking away from the gruesome scene beyond the glass. A screech was heard, muffled, along with a scream before the window was painted in a deep red splatter.

The man quivered, realising his mistake. "I seem to have been mistaken, sir. It won't happen again."

"No, it will not." Mr. Church replied, finally leaving.

The man didn't know if he should be relieved or worried. There had been rumours going around about what had happened to the last guy who had failed Mr. Church. None of them had been pretty.

He turned to leave as well, after giving himself a few moments to regain his posture – and hit a wall. A wall of bullet-proof glass. A wall of life and death… with his heart pounding in his chest loud enough to be heard down the halls, the man resisted the urge to kick and scream. He now knew it would only prolong the end.

He slid sideways, back to the wall, as a metallic _hiss_ came from around the corner. A large clawed hand could be seen emerging through the newly vacant doorway… the one that hadn't been there a second ago.

"No… please, no…"

-.-.-.-

Church watched on in the control room, assigning a successor for the mistaken technician without a second thought. His kind were a dime a dozen, in terms of expendability.

The Shatterdomes of the world were slowly, but cautiously agreeing to the ceasefire meeting. If all went well, they'd all get to know each other and then it would be so much harder for the pilots to go kill each other. But if it went badly, well… the war would be stepped up accordingly. It really didn't matter, as they really _had _prepared for all possibilities.

The map of the world and the political Shatterdome territories slowly lit up in signalled colours.

"All according to plan," he whispered, hearing a faint screaming somewhere behind him.

A small thump followed, leaving a deafening silence in its wake.

-.-.-.-

**Dammit Church... **

**~Pyro Le... _Inspired_**** (I'ma search up "Inspiration Drug" and see if there actually is- nevermind, I've got the CIA on my ass already... *pewpewpew* damn van!)**

**P.S. No mention of religion or belief or anything like that is meant in offence.**

**OH YEAH, I FORGOT TO MENTION: Sylvia Mansen is from The Sydney Scroungers and belongs to FeatherWriter. I've gotten permission for this reference to Sylvia though ;)**

**~Pyro Le Signature Addicted**

**R&R?**


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